Pedal-keyboard musical instrument.



T. r. GAYNOR. PEDAL KEYBOARD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED HA3. 7, 190B Patented Dec. 27 1910.

2- BHBETS-BHEET 1.

WITNESSES:

T. F. GAYNOR.

PEDAL KEYBOARD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. I, 1908.

Patented Dec.27, 1910.

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UNITED snares PAEENT OFFICE.

THOMAS GAYN R, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., AssIGNoR TO PEDAPHONE COMPANY, A

CORPORATION OF NEW YORK..

PEDAL-KEYBOARD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, THOMAS F. GAYNOR, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of New York city, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Pedal- Keyboard Musical Instruments, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to pedal keyboard musical instruments, and of the class having a keyboard mechanism that has connected with each of its keys a musical tone or note producing device such as a reed or pipe horn or tube, or a bell, or string, or any other musical tone producer, and the keys being playable by the foot or feet of a person, like those of a pedal keyboard organ or piano, only that the keys are arranged in rows or banks alternately, and supporting means for the player to give a better control and freedom of action than the organ or piano possesses, being provided so the player can play the instrument in a standing position as well as in a sitting position, if so desired.

The object of the invention is to produce a musical instrument that is especially adapted to use in parks, theaters, penny arcades, and other places of public resort, by giving music and entertainment by the player to the spectators, on account of its novel and peculiar construction and operative qualities.

The nature and purposes of the invention will be more fully understood from the following specification, and as will be especially pointed out in the claims, and taken in connection with the accom anying drawings, in which similar letters refer to similar parts in the several views.

While the invention is intended to be a first class instrument for the roduction of musical compositions of all kinds, by persons skilled in the art, it is also intended to be a source of amusement to the player and spectators, hence its appearance, and the movements of the player upon the keys, and his ludicrous postures and attitudes in endeavoring to step upon the proper keys and in correct time, and the false notes resulting from his mistakes, which are visually and audibly evident to all persons around him, are all intended to be elements of amusement to him and them, so this feature of the invention should be considered as an important factor in its construction, operation and purposes. The novel grouping of the Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed March 7, 1908.

Patented Dec. 27, 1910.

Serial No. 419,610.

keys in suitable banks, and the proportions and relations of the keys so that one, two or three of the notes can be struck without striking the intervening notes, and by one foot, are also important features of the in vention, to which attention is also especially directed. On account of its novel character, I can find no term or terms of nomenclature that will properly indicate its nature nearer than pedale (pedal keyboard) and phone (tone or sound), which terms I have united and abbreviated to pedaphone, and which name the instrument is known by.

Referring to the drawings ;F igure 1, is a perspective view of the instrument, with the figure of a person playing it in a standing position. Fig. 2, is a vertical section on the line of the tube connecting the key mechanism and the tone producer showing a key mechanism and its connection with the tone producer it actuates, that is, an approximately transverse vertical section on the dotted line a:--m, in Fig. 1. Fig. 3, is a top view of the keyboard showing the alternate arrangement of the keys which are indicated as being in the natural or diatonic scale of C. Fig. 4, is a side View of one .of the key and lever mechanisms, as seen in Fig. 2, only the key is in the depressed position it assumes while its tone producer is being played. Fig. 5, is a top view of five of the key levers seen in Figs. 2 and 4, the top board of the platform being broken away that the levers can be seen. Fig. 6, is a top view of the keyboard showing the arrangement of the keys as seen in Fig. 3, with the intervening semitones added and inserted as the black keys, thus giving the complete chromatic scale included within. the two octaves from the lower G, upwardly. Fig. 7, is side view of the three banks of keys seen in Fig. 6. Fig. 8, is a vertical section of one of the note producers in the form of a bell and its clapper mechanism, which may be used as an equivalent of the horns or tubes shown as the note producers in Figs. 1 and 2.

In the drawings ;the letters, A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, indicate the notes of the natural or diatonic scale of C, which the correspondingly designated keys play on their respective tone producers which are ppnnegted therevy ith. The characgers, (if,

D ,in Fi .6, in ieate tie ser riiton iwhi h tli d design ted black keys play on their respective toneproducers; and

the three rows of designated keys in this figure,-co1n rise" the chromatic orcomplete scale of 8, ascending from the lower G on the left to the upper G on the right, comprising two octaves as they do, show the alternated arrangementof the keys of the natural or white keyed scale, on the'keyboard. By alternated arrangement of the white keys, I mean that the white keys are stag gered from one row to the other alternately, that is A is in the lower row of keys, B is in the upper row, C is in the lower row, and so on with all white or natural. keys on the keyboard. The keys are also separated in each row by spaces about the same width as the width of the keys, which is about two inches. The width of an adult persons foot is about four inches, so by making the keys about two inches wide and the adjacent spaces being a similar width, there will be amargin of clear of two inches, or one inch each side of the foot, if the latter is placed centrally upon a key, as indicated by the dotted outline over the lower B key in Fig. 3; By this construction, the foot can depress a key in either of the white rows without danger of also depressing. the key at either side of it, on account of the clearance thus provided,.and the progressive ascension of the notes of the scale, is also provided for by zag-zag'path of the foot from left to right, followed when laying the gamut upon the white keys. making the keys so their top surfaces will be in two or three levels those on the same row being on. the same level, as in dicated in Fig. 7 and the toe being properly pointed downwardly, as therein indicated, the keys in advance of the lower row, can be easily depressed at will without touching any key except that to be played upon. he black keys shown. in Fig. 6, while narrower than the white keys, have intervals between the groups of twos and threes, in which they are necessarily arranged, so that any key in that row can be pedaled, withouttouching the adjacent ones by utilizing the wide spaces between the groups as the foot margin for clearance. An exception, how ever, is the middle black key Gil: in the three key group, which can. be made slightly higher, as ll'ldlC-Iifid by the dotted lines in Fig. 7, which will. permit of that key being depressed sufiicien-tly to: play its note without touching the adjacent keys.

In the keyboard arrangement shown, the range of tones is two octaves from the G below the middle C, upwardly. The range of keyboard shown, is sufficient in scope to play all of the common melodies in use, but 11'. can be enlarged if desired. The range shown is also within easy reach of both feet of an adult player, while in a and the order of the notesstanding position, or while sitting on a stool or the like.

The tone producers controlled by the keys can be ea-ch of the form of a reed pipe or organ pipe construction, as indicated at H, H, in Figs. 1 and 2, or of bell and clapper construction, as seen in Fig. 8, at H, or ofany other form suitable to produce musical tones.

The intermediate actuating mechanism between the keys and. the tone producers can be pneumatic consisting of bellows and clap per device, and connected with the tube I, as seen in Fig. 8, or by rod and lever connections in a piano or organ, or electrical as seen in electric musical instruments, or otherwise as may be desired. A simple form of coi'istruction is shown in the drawings, the mechanical details of which will now be explained.

Each key is made of a key block. J, secured to a key lever K, which is pivoted upon the pin L, in the fulcrum block M, attached to the bottom member N, of the platform P, or some other suitable support. A spring K, is attached to the cleat K on the lever K, at one end K and its free end 1Q, rests against the bottom N, and is 'so' arranged that when the key block J, is depressed as seen in Fig. 3, the spring K, will yield to the pressure of the players foot, but when the pressure is removed, the spring will restore the key to its normal position. as seen in Fig. 2. The key block J, and ljever K, appear in the rear of the tube I,'in Fig. 2, as the latter clears the lever as seen in Fig. 5, in its arrangement upwardly through the standard V, to a reed Q. The movement of the key lever K, is limited by the stop N, secured to the bottom N, and the block thus gives a solid support to the foot when the lever is fully depressed, while its upward movement is limited by the buffer N secured to'the top N of the keyboard X. The free end K of the lever K, terminates in two fingers K K, which engage with corresponding pins O, O, in the top board 0 of the bellows the bottom board 0 of which is secured to the bottom N, of the instrument. By this construction, the bellows O is free to close together by the weight of the top board 0 which forces its contained air through the outlet 0 and the connecting tube 1, through the tone producer H, having the reed Q, or other tone making device, in its construction. Each of the keys is provided with a similar lever mechanism, bellows, tube and tone producer, only each tone producer is tuned so as to make a note of a scale 0t musical tones, when they are taken collectively.

In Fig. 8, the tone producer is shown in the form of a bell H, which is sounded by a clapper R, connected with the movable member R, of the actuating bellows R hav ing the tube I, which may be connected with a bellows similar to that shown at 0 Fig. 1, are shown as being mounted upon' the frame comprising the pipe or horn holder S, the reed box T, and the tube box U con taining the rubber tubes I leading to the .reeds, all suitably joined together, and supported upon the standards or columns V, V, which are securely mounted upon the keyboard box.

The several parts of the instrument are of course, so constructed, as to permit of accessibility to the interior mechanism and connections, so the key board box, the standards, the reed and tube boxes, can each be opened and the interior parts connected up and adjusted as may be desired.

A person can play the instrument either in a sitting or a standing posit-ion, and the latter gives the most complete freedom of action to his feet. Therefore a hand support V, is provided for the player to enable him to support his weight thereon, and thus allow him to use either or both of his feet atwill, upon the keys which are beneath the support, which is shown in Fig. 1, as being a hand rail, and which can be adjusted to any suit-able height required, and made of any other equivalent modification of construction.

As the air pressure required to play tone producers of the character herein described is usually only a quarter of a pound or less to the square inch, it can be understood that the weight of a player is too heavy and variable to be applied directly to the bellows, so the air pressure is derived only from the weight of the movable top part of the bellows, which is adjusted accurately to give this required pressure, and the player only depresses the lever support from the bellows, when he steps upon a key, and his weight thus does not come upon the bellows at all, nor unduly affect its action on the tone producers, by the construction described.

A music rack Y, is shown in Fig. 1, upon which sheet music Z, written in characters large enough to be seen by the player while standing and playing, can be provided and read as he plays the instrument.

From the foregoing description, the operation of the instrument can easily be understood, as it is only necessary to depress the keys as those of a pedal organ keyboard is played upon, utilizing the advantages of connecting two or three keys with the foot and thus make good chords and harmonious accompaniments with the tunes as played, and as can be done, in the manner already described. The handrail gives steadiness to the body and complete freedom of action to the feet, and quality of the music produced only depends upon the skill and activity of the player.

It can thus be seen that I produce a simple and novel device for the purpose intended, and that it meets all the requirements of such an instrument.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A pedal keyboard musical instrument constructed so that it can be played by a person with his feet while in a standing position thereon and so that he can be seen therefrom in all directions horizontally, and consisting of a keyboard platform box, a series of pedal key actuated bellows ar ranged within the platform box, a corresponding series of tone producers mounted in a frame so as to be over the head of the player, a series of tubes connecting the bellows with the tone producers, and a pair of hollow standards .mounted upon the platform box and supporting the tone producer frame and tubes in position, and all combined as described.

2. A pedal keyboard musical instrument constructed so that it can be played by a person with his feet while in a standing position thereon and so that he can be seen therefrom in all directions horizontally, and consisting of a keyboard platform box, a series of pedal key actuated bellows arranged within the platform box, a corresponding series of tone producers mounted in a frame so as to be over the head of the player, a series of tubes connecting the bellows with the tone producers, a pair of hollow standards mounted upon the platform box and supporting the tone producer frame and tubes in position, and a hand support connected with the standards, all combined as described. I

3. A pedal keyboard musical instrument constructed so that it can be played by a person with his feet while in a standing position thereon, and consisting of a keyboard platform box, a series of pedal key controlled bellows arranged within the platform box, a corresponding series of tone producers mounted in a frame so as to be over the head of the player, a series of tubes connecting the bellows with the tone producers, and a pair of hollow standards mounted upon the platform box and supporting the tone producer frame and tubes in position thereupon, all combined as described.

4. A pedal keyboard musical instrument constructed so that it can be played by a person With his feet While in a, standing position thereon, and consisting of a keyboard platform box, a series of pedal key control-led bellows arranged Within the platform box, a. corresponding series of tone producers mounted in a frame so as to be over the head of the player, a series of tubes connecting the bellows with the tone producers, a pair of hollow standards mounted upon the platform box and supporting the tone producer frame end tubes in position thereupon, and a hand rail support eonneet'e'd with the standaii'ds by means of which the player can support himself by his hands, all combined as desori'bed.

Signed at New York city, in the county of New York, and State of New York this 5th day of Feb-roar A. D. 1908.

T OMAS F. GAYNOR. Witnesses:

EDWARD C. VIESER, EDMOND D. DAVIDSON. 

